


it's nice to have a friend

by reybencyera



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Rey (Star Wars), Ben Solo Needs A Hug, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Friends to Lovers, Kid Fic, Lawyer Ben Solo, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Ben Solo, Past Relationship(s), Single Dad Ben, Yet..., baby but not technically a reylo baby, based on a Twitter prompt, ben is flummoxed, rey said: i think i will cause problems on purpose
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:20:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25658095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reybencyera/pseuds/reybencyera
Summary: inspired by this @reylo_prompts post on twitter: Single dad Ben Solo is tired of being hit on by all the single or thirsty moms from his daughter's kindergarten class. He asks his friend Rey to come with him to pick up his daughter for a few days as his pretend fiance.➵ ➵ ➵ ➵“You know, I’ve noticed that you never bring your wife around for events or meetings like this. And I’ve never seen you wear a ring,” she looked up through her eyelashes in a gesture he was sure was meant to be enticing, “If you ever wanted to get together sometime, we could-”“I have a girlfriend."“Oh?”“Fiancée, actually."
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 49
Kudos: 262
Collections: Reylo Prompt Fills (@reylo_prompts)





	1. "wanna hang out?" yeah, sounds like fun

**Author's Note:**

> hellooooo i am so excited to be starting this fic! this _is_ currently a work in progress, but i estimate it will be three chapters when finished. this prompt really grabbed me so i can't wait to see where the story takes me.

Ben sighed in relief as the PTA meeting he was attending finally concluded, the tired-looking teacher having announced that the slide they were on was the last of the presentation.

It wasn’t that he necessarily _hated_ coming to these things - he really did understand that it was meant to be beneficial for the students - he just found the whole process incredibly boring. A few minutes of greetings, an hour or so of discussion about the most trivial topics imaginable, a few _more_ minutes of polite conversation before they all left.

He was sure it would’ve been more enjoyable if he were a more routinely social person, or if the majority of the parents whose children frequented this snooty private school weren’t a bunch of conservative bigots who were only too willing to get into debates about his work as an immigration lawyer.

As it was, he struggled to keep up civil conversations in the very little time he forced himself to remain after the official portion of the meetings ended.

One of the myriad of moms attending sidled up to where he stood at the snack table and he repressed a sigh. He’d really just wanted to grab one of the too-expensive bottles of water for the road.

“How are you, Mr. Solo?” she asked, her hand grazing his elbow as she crowded closer to him than was societally considered polite.

“As well as I can be-” he paused. He truly couldn’t remember this woman’s name. “How are you doing?”

She seemed to notice his moment of hesitation, clearing her throat and gazing up at him with a pained smile that bordered on malicious. “Oh, not well at all I’m afraid. Norman and I have made our separation official.”

Ben frowned, stuck between wanting to say something consoling and wondering why she’d brought it up to someone who was almost a complete stranger. Before he could formulate a response, she was speaking again.

“You know, I’ve noticed that you never bring your wife around for events or meetings like this. And I’ve never seen you wear a ring,” she looked up through her eyelashes in a gesture he was sure was meant to be enticing, “If you ever wanted to get together sometime, we could-”

“I have a girlfriend,” he spat out quickly, immediately followed by the thought: _you absolute_ moron _Ben Solo._

“Oh?”

“Fiancée, actually,” he continued breathily in what he hoped was a more convincing tone.

“Well,” she recovered quickly, “Why have we never met her?”

“She’s, uh, she’s really shy. Meeting so many new people would probably be too overwhelming for her right now and-”

“Oh, nonsense! First Order Primary is all about fostering camaraderie in our community, surely you’d want your future spouse to take part in that?”

He sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to get out of this one easily.

“Maybe…”

“As a matter of fact, why don’t you bring her to pick up Celia after school on Monday? That way we can all meet her.”

Distantly his mind buzzed with _how and why does this random woman know my child’s name_ , but he simply nodded, blurting out an excuse to leave before she could drill him for more information.

Walking across the hall to where a long-suffering teacher’s aid was watching the children of the parents who’d been in the meeting, he silently panicked over what he’d agreed to do in his desire to escape.

He pushed the feeling down the minute he saw his daughter and walked across the room to where she was playing with a plastic, toddler-sized kitchen set. Crouching on the scratchy rug next to her, he ruffled her dark blonde hair.

“What are you making?” he asked teasingly.

She grinned up at him, her missing tooth fully on display. Celia had been so happy when it fell out, telling him all about how she’d made the other kids in her class look at the dollar the tooth fairy had given her.

“Mac n’ cheese for Rey.”

He smiled with amusement at how well his daughter was attuned to his best friend’s love of food. “She’ll love that, sweetheart.”

Celia smiled at him again and responded with an, “I know.”

Ben closed his eyes for a second and let out a huff of laughter. His daughter was incredibly self-assured and, as someone who constantly doubted himself, he wasn’t quite sure where she’d learned it.

He spent a couple of minutes coaxing her into leaving. Finally having convinced her, he swooped her up in his arms and gave the teacher’s aid (Rose, he thought her name was?) a wave goodbye.

“What’re we gonna do t’night?” She had her head buried in his shoulder and sounded sleepy.

“Well, tomorrow is Saturday so we’ll eat some dinner, and then we can watch a movie if you want.”

She turned her head to him with an eager look in her eyes, instantly wide awake. “Can we watch Ariel?”

He chuckled, “Yeah, honey, we can watch _Little Mermaid_ … again.”

In the twenty-minute drive back to his condo, Celia’s little forehead pressed up against the cool window in the back and breath fogging up the glass as she dozed, he had time to consider the lie he’d entangled himself in.

What had he been _thinking_ , saying that he was engaged? He hadn’t been in anything close to a committed relationship since Celia’s mom left and he didn’t see that changing in the next few days. He realized with a grimace that he would just have to cope with the fact that his lie would inevitably be discovered.

When they got home, he parked and transferred Celia from her booster seat onto his hip. She roused as they neared the door and by the time he plopped her on the couch she was fully awake again. Grabbing the remote, she fumbled around until she found her favorite movie. She hummed quietly to herself as the Disney intro filled the screen.

He moved into the kitchen, pulling out some ingredients he’d use to make their meal. The sound of the front door opening startled him and he hit his head on the freezer door as he leaned up to see who was coming in.

It was needless anyway, as Celia’s cries of “REY!” were enough to signal to him who had just arrived. He went back to rifling through his fridge, knowing she’d find him after his daughter was done interrogating her about work.

Rey was a freelance artist and she sometimes brought Celia sketches she’d done throughout the day. She had a veritable collage of them hung up with tape all over her room. He found the whole thing ridiculously adorable.

He was still shoulders deep in the fridge when Rey walked into the kitchen and laughed.

“Trying to get lost in there?”

“I was going to make omelets for dinner… I _know_ I bought eggs, like, last week.”

“I’m sure you did, but I’m afraid that won’t be necessary.”

He looked up at her finally and saw the pizza box she was toting.

“You’re a godsend, you know that?”

“Yes, I do.” ( _Ah, so_ that’s _where she gets it from_ , he thought), “Now come on, I’ve been waiting for this all day.” Sighing, he moved to one of the cabinets to grab plates.

Rey seemed to notice that there was something odd about him (he _was_ even more dejected-looking than usual, he supposed) and asked, “Did work suck or something?”

“Nah, I’m fine.” At her skeptical look, he huffed. “I _am_. It’s just something that happened after the PTA meeting today. I’ll tell you later.”

“ _PTA meeting_. You’re such an old man, Solo.”

“We’re literally two years apart.”

“Yes, but I’ve aged gracefully.”

“Rey, I’m thirty. I’m not prehistoric.”

She rolled her eyes sardonically, mouth slanted into a smirk. “Okay, boomer.”

God, she infuriated him sometimes - in the best way possible, of course. This was what their friendship had always been like, even back in their undergrad days when they had just met - they mercilessly ribbed each other, knowing that they could each take as good as they gave.

They both knew that the joking was nothing more than a cover for how far their ( _entirely platonic_ , he assured himself) affection went for each other.

After Celia’s mother left them, Rey had always been there for him, babysat for him, came to every one of her birthday parties for the past six years. He really couldn’t imagine a better… friend. _Yeah, friend._

“Anyway, give me a couple of plates and I’ll get Celia a slice.”

He did just that and watched as she grabbed three for herself (Rey had always had the appetite of someone twice her size) and one for his daughter. His eyes followed her movements as she glided over to the couch, carefully placing the plates on the coffee table before falling beside Celia and making her dissolve into giggles as she bounced.

He grinned to himself before turning back to the pizza.

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

Rey quietly came out of Celia’s room, pressing the door shut behind her. He was sitting on the couch with his feet propped up on the table, something she always berated him about doing, and knew exactly what their next topic of conversation would be.

Rey sat down next to him, the side of her torso pressed gently against his.

“So what happened?”

He brought his hands up to his face and groaned. “To explain it I’ll have to- _ugh_ , this is so embarrassing.”

“You’ve been my best friend for almost a decade now. I’m pretty sure you know pretty much every embarrassing thing there is to know about me at this point.” She held her pinky up. “Promise not to make fun of you.”

He frowned. “Rey, we’re not five.”

“Actually pinky promises are binding regardless of the age of the participants, so-,”

“Fine.” He interlaced his pinky with hers. They dropped their hands after a second and he began again.

“Well… these moms at this school, you know. Most of them are older. Have issues with their rich husbands. Whatever.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. And so… sometimes, I’ll get… hit on, I guess, by the moms - and, like, a couple of dads, too. I don’t think they mean to be rude, but it makes me…”

“Uncomfortable?” She asked, a sharp edge in her voice.

“No, not _that_ uncomfortable, honestly. It’s just- you know me. I can’t even interact with people trying to have a normal conversation with me, and being… _flirted_ with is something I haven’t experienced in literal years. I don’t know- my fight or flight response kicks in or something.”

Rey looked like she wanted to laugh but reined herself in.

“So I’m assuming that sort of thing happened again today?” he nodded and she continued, “What did you do?”

“Something stupid,” he leaned back and rubbed his hands down his face once more.

“I kinda… _implied_ that the reason I didn’t want to be with the woman hitting on me was that I… have a fiancée.”

He waited a moment for her reaction. When she didn’t say anything for a few long seconds, he looked over at her and noticed she was desperately holding in her mirth.

“You promised you wouldn’t laugh!”

“I- I’m sorry, Ben,” she took a breath and cackled, “I really just don’t know why these things always happen to you. Or why you do them to yourself.”

“Yeah, me neither.” He shook his head, cracking a smile despite himself at her laughter.

When she finally calmed down, she fell further into the couch beside him and pulled her legs up to her chest. “So what are you gonna do about it? I mean there’s obviously not much you _can_ do besides lying again and digging yourself into a deeper hole or, well, I guess you could get somebody to pretend to be your fiancée, but-”

A figurative lightbulb appeared over his head. Rey must have noticed the look in his eyes because she immediately protested.

“Oh, no no no no no. No. You are not dragging me into this one, Solo.”

“Please, Rey? _Please_? It would only be one time and it would get all of them off my back and-,”

“No, Ben, no! I’m not doing it!”

“Rey,” he said, suddenly serious. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to but please just consider it? As a favor to a friend?”

She paused then started grumbling frustratedly; he knew she was convinced. “One time?”

“One time. Promise.” He held out his pinky, mirroring her actions from earlier. Reluctantly, she reached out her hand.

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

They watched an episode of some show about flea markets and upcycling that Rey inexplicably loved before she announced that she had to go.

“Are you sure? We could order more food and just crash on the couch. Relive our college years.”

“You have a child now, Mr. Nostalgia, and I have a client that’s Skyping me at seven in the morning.” At his look of horror, she nodded, eyes exaggeratedly downcast, “That was my reaction as well. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”

“Alright,” he went to open the door and she grabbed her bag. Putting a hand across the door frame, he cleared his throat. “And, uh, thank you. Sincerely. For agreeing to go along with all this.”

“Don’t mention it,” she replied cheekily. “Just know that you totally owe me.”

He shook his head at her and she snorted, eyes going down to her feet. Filled with a sudden burst of sentimentality, he shuffled forward a couple steps and pulled her into his arms.

This was familiar, the feel of Rey against him. Maybe not in the way the most carnal part of him would like, but this seemed almost… more meaningful, somehow.

They’d always known the right ways to comfort each other, to hold each other when they needed it. He supposed that was just a by-product of being best friends for as long as they had been.

She pulled away first, sniffling a bit, and grinned up at him, giving him a light smack on his arm and a soft “goodbye”.

Ben watched her while she walked down the hallway and was caught when she looked back to where he was standing. They locked eyes and she gave him a smile before entering the elevator and disappearing.

Standing in paralyzing bewilderment at his doorway, he wondered what the hell had just happened.


	2. something gave you the nerve to touch my hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben and Rey plot their course of action. Rey has a little fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hellooooo so first i'd like to apologize for the wait BUT this chapter is quite long so i hope that makes up for it slightly :)) i really appreciated the warm reception to the first chapter, and i hope this one doesn't disappoint 😬🙏

Rey’s breath came out in soft puffs as she surveyed the smooth ice under her feet, hand clutched in Celia’s much smaller one. She’d never been good at skating and when she felt her skates slip a little out from under her, she acknowledged that she needed the kid’s support- even if she did feel a bit foolish.

Of course, Ben wasn’t faring much better. He’d never been particularly graceful, even when they were younger, and time hadn’t been kind to his sense of balance. She glanced up from her feet and over at him. His face was contorted into a hilarious-looking grimace as he focused on moving one of his gigantic feet in front of the other. Rey nudged Celia in the shoulder and gestured over to him, causing the girl to erupt into laughter.

At her outburst, he quickly glanced up at her, taking his attention away from his feet. Before any of them could make another move, Ben’s legs were in the air and his back was against the ice. Groaning, he lifted a hand to rub it against his side. The girls rushed over to where he had fallen, Celia with tears filling her eyes. 

“I- I’m sorry Daddy. I didn’t- I promise I didn’t mean to make you fall.” A couple of wet trails ran down her cheeks, and she rubbed at her eyes with one chubby fist.

Ben hurriedly sat up at the waist (only allowing himself to wince at the movement when Rey was his only witness) and wrapped his arms around her, running his hand up and down her back comfortingly. “No, no. You didn’t do anything. And I’m fine, sweetie. I’m not hurt.”

She pulled back from him and ran her eyes down his body as though to make sure he was telling the truth. She sniffed quietly. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Promise.”

Rey had been watching the whole exchange with a sort of wonder in her eyes. It just… got to her sometimes. Seeing Ben, well,  _ parent.  _

It filled her with a sort of longing, though for what she wasn’t sure. She had always wanted a family of her own, so she supposed it was just her wanting her own little Celia. Someone who would love her as unconditionally as Ben and his daughter obviously loved each other. 

She shook herself from her ruminations as Celia finally moved away. Moving a couple of steps forward, she reached out her hands and attempted to help drag Ben up from the ground.

Through some blunder of hers, this left them  _ extremely  _ close when he regained his footing. A few inches away, really. 

( _ Kissing distance,  _ her traitorous mind brought up; she shoved the thought down as deeply as she could manage.)

She moved away swiftly, not catching the crestfallen look on her friend’s face as she did.

“So,” she clapped her gloved hands together, “Who wants hot chocolate?”

Celia rubbed her nose, red from the cold, and hoarsely croaked out “Me!” She came to stand beside Rey and grabbed her hand. Absentmindedly, Rey began to rub it between her own, hoping to stave off some of the chill. 

“Ben, why don’t you find us somewhere to sit and we’ll go get some? You should probably give yourself a few minutes, that was a pretty rough fall.”

“I don’t need to take a  _ rest _ , Rey. I fell on ice, I didn’t- ” He took a few steps toward them and grimaced, hand going to his hip. 

“Mkay old man, get over there and grab us a table.” She winked at him and began to drag Celia away to the concessions.

He froze for a few long seconds, face becoming red from something other than the cold, then began to scurry as quickly as he could over to the sitting area. 

When they returned, Rey took a seat beside him and Celia sat on the other side of the picnic table, content to look around at the glittering fairy lights that were hung up over the rink. Rey handed him a disposable cup full of coffee and he looked at her gratefully. He’d hardly slept the night before, much too worried about their plan to rest. Leave it to Rey to know exactly what he needed. 

“I think,” she began as she clicked some game on her phone and slid it over to Celia, “we should talk about Monday.”

He paused and took a sip from his cup, grimacing a bit at the burn. “Agreed. Is there anything in particular that you think you’ll need to know?”

Rey thought for a moment. “Well… they’ll ask about how we met. That can stay the same I guess. We had a mutual friend at college-”

“-who got drunk at a party one night, noticed we were the only two people there without dates, and proceeded to tell us that we should hook up.”

Stifling a laugh, Rey looked over at Celia and was thankful that she still seemed fairly distracted. 

“Leave it to Poe to turn our introduction into a meet-cute rather than a platonic first encounter.”

“I seem to remember Finn being in on that too, to be fair.” He smiled at her then, one of those eye-crinkling, dimple-exposing smiles that never failed to make her melt. 

Allowing herself to grin back goofily for only a nanosecond, she hurriedly cleared her throat and averted her eyes. ”Um… what about our first date?”

“I’ve, uh, thought about that actually.  _ Beauty and the Beast  _ is your favorite movie, and if I’ve got the timeline down correctly the live-action one came out around then, right?”

“Yeah… yeah, it did. I mean, not a great movie as it turns out, but we wouldn’t have known that at the time. Also, why does it not surprise me that you’ve mapped out a  _ timeline-” _ _  
_ _  
_ “So, boring movie date and then we got ice cream and talked about how let down we were that it kind of sucked?”

She nodded, then took a quick sip of her rapidly cooling drink. “Sounds like a date. Hehe.”

He rolled his eyes at her. 

“I’m assuming they’ll also want to know all about the proposal?”

He nodded his head slowly, eyes lingering somewhere near the lower part of her face. She wondered whether she had some sort of hot chocolate mustache and reached up a hand to wipe her upper lip. 

That seemed to snap him out of it, and his gaze came up to hers. “That’ll need a bit more fabrication, but I was thinking that we could just keep it simple. Let’s say… we were going for a walk in the park one night in- like- July, or something. The sun was setting. It was  _ romantic  _ and all that.” He rolled his eyes. “Celia was staying with my parents and we’d been talking about the future. You were so happy and beautiful in the fading light that I just got down on one knee and asked, even though I’d planned out an entire evening.”

Rey hesitated, breath coming to her more shallow. “For someone who shudders at the word romantic you’re very good at coming up with romantic scenarios.”

He simply sighed at that. “You’re also going to need… a ring. You know, for verisimilitude.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“Whatever- the point I’m trying to make is that the parents at this school are a bunch of traditionalists. You wearing a ring will really sell it to them.”

“I get what you’re saying, but I… don’t have a ring. Shocking, I know.”

He smirked down at her and reached into his pocket. She widened her eyes as she saw the distinct shape of a ring box. Her mouth gaped open when he opened the top and a beautiful, glittery,  _ enormous  _ engagement ring suddenly filled her vision.   
  
“Before you say anything, I didn't buy this. It was my grandmother Padme’s. She died before I was born.”

“Oh…” she trailed off, still staring at it in awe.

“I kind of just had it lying around. If it makes you uncomfortable or whatever you don’t have to wear it.”

She gawked at him. “But… what if I lose it? You might- well, you might want to give it t-”

He snatched her left hand, which was wildly gesticulating at this point, from the air and slid the ring onto her finger in one smooth movement. It fit perfectly, a detail that made an embarrassingly needy mewl rise up in Rey’s throat- an impulse which she knocked to the back of her mind, tucking it away cozily next to the thrice locked box labeled “Ben Feelings That Should Not Be Analyzed”.

“I trust you, Rey.” The intensity in his eyes shook her to her core. She looked upon his earnest expression and tears started to gather in her eyes.

The moment was broken when Celia knocked her cup off the table, spilling her drink and prompting them both into action.

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

On Monday afternoon, Ben picked up Rey from her small studio apartment nearer the edge of town. She walked out in her usual get-up: a sweater, a pair of overalls with a couple of small paint splatters, hair pulled up into a bun. She wore a large, puffy parka coat that she’d owned for years over it all. It absolutely swallowed her, making her look even smaller than he usually perceived her (giant that he was).

He was glad she’d decided to come as she was, no matter what the parents at Celia’s school had to say. At least one part of this would feel authentic.

She climbed in his car, immediately shucking her thick coat to the back and fiddling with the seat warmers. This was habit, this felt right. He took a steadying breath.   
  
“Hey, listen- I assume this isn’t what your fellow  _ private school  _ parents will be expecting me to wear, but I thought I might as well be comfortable. That’s okay, right?”

He nodded his head immediately. “Of course it is. I don’t care what they think.”

She looked over at him skeptically.

“Okay, maybe a little bit. But not about this.”

“If you say so. You know Ben, it’s not really my place to say so but if these elitist pricks grate on your nerves so badly, maybe you should consider changing schools.”

“I know I should. I don’t- I can’t say that I want Celia to grow up with those people’s children as influences. I’ll think more about it when this mess is over with.”

He glanced over at her in the passenger seat, where she twirled the ring around her finger anxiously. Impulsively, his hand shot out to grab hers. It stole her breath and her eyes immediately came up to meet his.

It was… hard for her to discern, let alone understand, the emotion that lurked behind them. The depth of it startled her, but not necessarily in a bad way.

“It’ll be alright Rey. If you feel uncomfortable at some point just say the word and we’ll leave.”

Raising up her smallest finger, she asked, “Pinky promise?”

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

They finally arrived at First Order Primary, Rey wrinkling her nose adorably when she saw the plain, military-grade logo on one of the signs out front. Ben neared one of the parking spaces and pulled in slowly. Sighing, a small smirk appeared on his lips. 

“There’s still time to back out you know.” 

Rey shook her head and looked back at him steadily, shooting him a small, ribbing simper. “I’m fine. We’ll just get in there, grab Celia, shake off a couple of rabid moms, and get the hell out.”

Ben nodded, turning the keys to the left and shutting off his car. He grabbed their jackets from the back seat and handed Rey’s to her, pulling his on distractedly. 

They climbed out of the car and made their way to the front, where the principal- Snoke, she’d once heard Ben call him- was standing at the receptionist’s desk. 

“Afternoon, Mr. Solo,” the man muttered, sounding bored as he flipped through a collection of papers. His gaze shot up for a second and he did a double-take, eyes taking on a discomforting leer. 

“And who might this be?” 

Rey began to respond but Ben beat her to it. 

“My fiancee,” he replied sternly, voice dark.

“Ah, of course,” Snoke’s eyes raked over her salaciously, not even attempting to hide his thoughts, “Nice catch there, Solo.” 

Ben began to respond, face suddenly red, but Rey pulled him away suddenly and steered them down the hallway. 

“Rey, her class is on the opposite side of the building.” 

“Then we’ll find another way there; that Snoke guy gives me the creeps. Seriously, Ben, of all the schools in this area, why is  _ this _ the one you chose.”

He stopped and tugged on her hand, halting her hurried steps. 

“I- well, I guess I never told you for whatever reason but this is the school that… that  _ she _ wanted Celia to go to. She went here as a kid or something.” 

Ah, yes.  _ She _ as in Celia’s mother. The mother that had run out on her boyfriend and two-month-old child and given Ben more baggage than he’d already been burdened with. The mother that Ben hadn’t heard from in six years.

It frustrated her sometimes, the way that Ben held on to the memory of her. Theirs hadn’t been the healthiest relationship and Rey had always (secretly) thought that she was using him for his money, his status, his things. 

At the time, it hadn’t seemed to be her place to talk about it; but after years of friendship, the time she had devoted to Ben and his daughter (not that she regretted it in the slightest, they’d consistently been the best things in her life), it became harder and harder not to comment on the way he still clung to that- frankly- toxic relationship from so long ago.

For right now, however, she let it slide. They were nearly late as it was.

“Let’s go,” she murmured quietly, pulling Ben from his thoughts.

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

The first thing that Rey registered when she entered Celia’s class was the  _ colors _ . Obviously whoever this teacher was had a strong appreciation for them because the class contained multi-colored streamers hung from the ceiling tiles, canopies over the light fixtures which gave the room a more welcoming glow, and a huge mural of a rainbow painted on a wall where students’ artwork was taped up.

As an artist herself, Rey was delighted by the decor. Her face lit up and, when she turned to get a more complete grasp of the details of the classroom, she saw Ben watching her out of the corner of his eye. 

“This is  _ great _ ,” she whispered to him. 

He grinned at her, “I knew you’d like it. Though apparently Snoke isn’t a fan. Says it distracts the students or something.”

Rey scoffed quietly. “They’re kindergarteners, it’s not like- wait a minute, how would you know that?”

“I have my ways.” And then, in a move she could have never anticipated, the edge of his mouth turned up and he  _ winked  _ at her. 

_ That's _ my _thing..._

Her face heated and she glanced around quickly, taking in the various parents scattered around the room collecting their children. None of them seemed to have noticed their arrival yet, which she supposed was good, but she was certain it wouldn’t take long. 

Her prediction came true when one woman looked up at them and back down, then up again (this time obviously looking for the ring on Rey’s finger), and finally scurried over to a neighboring table to nudge another mom in the side. 

They both looked up at her and Ben at once and she grabbed his hand quickly, causing him to jolt.

Turning her head over the shoulder facing Ben, she muttered, “They’re looking at us. Should you… introduce me or something?”

He looked over to where the two women were standing, simply nodding his head and beginning to walk over to them. 

“Here goes nothing…” he said with an almost imperceptible wince. 

They were stopped in their tracks when a familiar, high-pitched voice screeched out, “REY!” over the din of the class. 

Celia ran toward them and Rey crouched down to hug her, a wide smile forming on her face. They immediately became invested in some conversation about a cartoon that his daughter liked and he gingerly squatted down so as to be included in it. 

Looking over at them- at the way Celia had her little hands twisted in his Rey’s larger ones, the way she gazed up at her like she’d put the stars in the sky, the way Rey looked at her with a similar sort of familial adoration- it almost wasn’t hard to imagine that Rey could be her mother, was perhaps already her maternal figure. 

But then, wasn’t she?

Ben allowed himself to be dragged back into a memory from years ago, around the time when Celia had first been learning to understand the meanings of some simple- and yet so significant- words.

She’d been around 19, maybe 20, months at the time. Rey was hanging out at his place like she did almost every night. They'd had a dinner of boxed macaroni and cheese (they were such mature, grounded adults) and binge-watched a few episodes of some TV show they were both obsessed with. Rey held Celia and did little things to keep her smiling and happy while they sat on the couch, he remembered. 

When it had come time for Rey to leave, she passed her back to him. She’d been just about to head out the door when baby Celia had whimpered out, in her garbled way, “Mama.”

He recalled how Rey had stopped in her tracks, blushing up at him as they met eyes and burst into awkward laughter. He’d shook his head and huffed out a quiet apology. Rey had simply replied that it was fine, she got it, and quickly made to leave. 

The memory had stuck with him for so long, was so vivid, and he didn’t even particularly know why. 

The sound of heels clicking on tile was what pulled him from that train of thought, and he looked up to see the same woman who’d approached him at the PTA meeting. Standing up hurriedly, he stretched a hand out in greeting.

Ignoring him entirely, she looked over at Rey, who had apparently also risen from the floor and was holding Celia’s hand.

“And who might this be?” she asked, giggling lightheartedly.

Cringing internally, he reached his left hand over to Rey, who took it in her remaining one and-

_ Huh, look at that.  _ Maybe it was a silly thought to have, but when he looked across at how they were standing (Rey holding his hand, his daughter holding hers) it was... easy to pretend for a moment that they were a family. A real one.

Turning his attention back to PTA lady, he gave a small smile- uncharacteristic of him in this setting, which explained her confused expression- and answered her query. 

“This is Rey Niima. The fiancee I told you about.”

If this woman had seemed confused before, she now seemed confused  _ and  _ shocked. Fortunately for her, she recovered quickly. 

“Oh, of course. It’s so lovely to meet you, dear. We’ve heard…  _ so much  _ about you.”

“Really?” Rey asked teasingly. She turned her head to the right and looked up at him, “That sounds a bit out-of-character for you, don’t you think babe?”

He gaped at her for a second. 

_ Babe?? _

“Yeah,” he answered, wits finally returning to him, “Nothing like me at all, I’m afraid.”

“I mean, you’re such a terribly private person, you divulging personal details about me just doesn’t make much sense at all, really.”

“Good thing we don’t need to be worried about the consistency of my character though, as it’s completely inaccurate.”

“Is it?”

“In fact,” addressing PTA lady, “I’m pretty sure you didn’t know of her existence until a few days ago.”

The woman’s mouth opened and closed a few times, like she was trying to say something but the words fled her tongue right before she could utter them. 

“I’m- I’ve- well, sometimes it doesn’t take long to feel like you know someone, right?” Her eyes cut over to Ben. He nodded primly, sensing that they’d shaken her up enough for the moment.

“So-” she continued, “would you like me to introduce you to some of the other parents?”

Ben responded to her quickly. “I don’t think we have the ti- ”

“That would be wonderful,” Rey interjected. 

He looked over at her questioningly and noticed with an inaudible groan that her eyes held a glint of mischief. Who knew what she was getting them into. 

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

Over the next fifteen minutes, Rey had ruffled enough feathers- while simultaneously making it quite clear that she was staking her claim- that he was certain none of his fellow First Order parents would be shamelessly flirting with him any time soon, lest they face her wrath.

The most Ben had to do was stand at her side, nod his head in agreement once in a while, and stifle his laughter. It was hard  _ not _ to laugh when he heard Rey’s lurid description of how their first date had apparently gone down: he’d taken fake-Rey to his family reunion, evidently, where he’d proceeded to introduce her to every relation of his. According to her, both his forwardness and certain unsavory figures in his extended family had repulsed her at first, but she’d grown used to it over time.

He bit his lips after she told that story, his knowledge of how much Rey loved his family only making the whole thing even more comedic.

What almost blew their cover was how he’d been unable to contain his snort when she’d spun a tale of him proposing to her while they were stuck at the top of a ferris wheel at a carnival he’d taken her to. It might have just been a quirky engagement story if she’d not specifically mentioned that she was deathly afraid of heights. 

“Tears of fear were streaming down my face and he said I’d never looked more beautiful,” she said with a dreamy sigh, “It was the most romantic moment of my life.”

A woman he vaguely remembered being called Sue looked at him as though he was Lucifer himself.

The entire time she talked, their hands remained linked- something which startled Ben every time he thought too hard on it. Rey didn’t seem at all perturbed, however. She simply held on to him tightly and pulled him along as the woman whose name he still had yet to learn led them around the room.

When they had  _ finally _ finished greeting  _ every single parent in the room _ , he and Rey collected Celia (who he assumed had been blissfully unaware of their topic of conversation as she’d gone back over to the toys and played with a couple of other kids.) They waved their goodbyes to the group, all of whom seemed nothing but relieved to see them go.

A voice called out for them before they made it out the door. 

“Mr. Solo?” He attempted to continue walking, but Rey gripped his arm and spun him around with her. A tall woman who he’d only briefly conversed with- Phasma, maybe?- had asked the question. “I’m sure you’re already aware, but we’re having our annual fundraiser in the park next Saturday. Would Miss Niima... be interested in attending?”

The other parents seemed shocked and a bit horrified. This time he didn’t even get to speak before Rey, to his astonishment, had said yes.

As they found their way through the labyrinth that was the practically identical hallways of the school, Ben murmured to her, “Why did you agree?”

“A little more fun can’t hurt, right?” She looked up at him mirthfully.

➵ ➵ ➵ ➵

They held it together for the most part as they made their way out to his car, but he could see a self-satisfied smirk on Rey’s face from his peripheral vision. He noted that she had yet to remove her hand from his. Not that he was complaining.

Her composure broke when she climbed into the passenger seat, unfortunately severing their hold. He shook his head and giggled- yes,  _ giggled- _ as she clutched her sides and guffawed.

When he turned around to make sure Celia was buckled in before they pulled out, she had a confused expression on her face. Deciding not to ask about the cause of it just yet, he instead thought of something he was sure would make them both happy.

“I know it’s still really early, but do you guys wanna go get an early dinner?”

“Only if you’re paying, Solo.”

  
  
“Don’t I always?”

She just scoffed back at him, once again thumbing the ring on her finger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> a few things:
> 
> -i'm moving into college next week (yay!) so while i hope to have the next chapter up soon there could be a delay. thanks for understanding.  
> -some tags and things have been added but if anyone has suggestions i'm totally open to them.  
> -comments give me immeasurable joy and i treasure each one <3  
> -i'm on twitter @reybencyera

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading! if you want, you can follow me on twitter here: https://twitter.com/reybencyera
> 
> (p.s. not that this particularly matters, but i looked up the meanings of baby names for ben's daughter in this fic and i thought it might interest some people to know that the name celia means "heavenly")
> 
> (p.p.s. her name is lowkey a reference to the lyric "hell was the journey but it brought me to heaven" from taylor swift's song invisible string. do with that information what you will)


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